The present invention relates to an airship capable of being easily controlled during taking off and landing, and more particularly to an airship the controllability of which is improved so that its taking off and landing can be controlled correctly and safely by means of a propulsion means to move the body of the airship up-down and right -left.
Recently there has been a great expectation of the future enhancement of an airship in the following respects:
(a) An airship does not require a large runway and a large airport, and it is free from a noise pollution problem and attains energy-saving considerably. PA0 (b) An airship can satisfy a large demand for new transportation means in a region where usual transportation means are not economically feasible (for example, a region provided with no sufficient traffic facilities, where the mineral resources and the timber resources are to be developed and utilized) PA0 (c) An airship provides a great effectiveness of advertising and publicity because of its capability of low speed navigation PA0 (d) An airship is suitable for a patrol of long time duration because of its capability of long time flight PA0 (e) An airship is now capable of navigating at a normal speed of 100 to 200 km/h and therefore, there is a possibility that an airship provides supplimentation or new exploitation for middle or long distance overland traffic means such as a taxi under a supersaturated condition, for overseas traffic means and for traffic means between solitary islands, so as to make the world traffic situation undergo a complete change. PA0 an axial fluid pathway penetrating through a body of the airship in an axial direction, PA0 at least one radial fluid pathway crossing the axial fluid pathway and penetrating through the body in a radial direction, the axial fluid pathway and the radial fluid pathway forming a ventilating-thrusting tube having a rigid framework construction, PA0 propulsion means, thrust generating direction of which is adjustable, arranged in a crossing region of the axial fluid pathway and the radial fluid pathway, and PA0 a lift balloon arranged beside the ventilating-thrusting tube in such a manner that a gap is formed between the ventilating-thrusting tube and the lift balloon to allow air to flow through. This particular arrangement lowers a tendency that the airship yaws due to a transverse wind. Further the airship according to the invention has a semi-rigid and semi-flexible construction capable of making up for drawbacks of both rigid type and flexible type.
On the other hand, there are some problems to be solved so that above-mentioned beneficial features of an airship can be utilized more easily and widely. An improvement of controllability during taking off and landing is one of the problems.
An airship is apt to be influenced by a wind because of its essential configurational feature that its body is big compared with its weight. Consequently, during taking off and landing when the controllability is lowered because of a lower speed than the cruising speed, a skillfull control is required to carry out quick taking off and landing to the predetermined position in order to minimize the influence of changes of wind.
However, the descending speed control of a conventional airship is usually performed by means of, for example, a change of the body weight by filling an inside compartment of the airship body with compressed air, and the response of the airship to the above-mentioned control is extremely slow. So the quick and accurate landing to the predetermined position has been difficult.
The present invention was made in view of above-mentioned problems in the conventional airship. An object of the present invention is to provide an airship improved in the controllability during taking off and landing. Another object of the present invention is to promote the utilization of airships removing one of large obstructing factors of the spread of airships.